Computer Networks And Internet Protocol

From history to the transport layer

This NPTEL course from IIT Kharagpur starts with the history of computer networks, the move from circuit switching to packet switching, and the layered protocol stack that the rest of the course builds on. It then works up through each layer in turn.

Application and transport

The application-layer lectures take in DNS, the web and HTTP, Internet mail and file transfer. The transport-layer lectures move on to services, connection setup, reliability and sliding window protocols, which is where most of the protocol detail sits.

Where to get the most

• Pair the lectures with a packet trace or a simple socket program so the layers feel concrete.
• Treat the sliding window lectures as the hardest stretch and give them extra time.
• Use the course as a structured tour of the stack if networking has so far been a set of unrelated acronyms.